Schoolgirl Woken By Fox On Her Bed

A 15-year-old girl claims she woke in the middle of the night to find a fox sitting on her chest in her south west London home.

Schoolgirl Isobelle Barter was in bed asleep when she was awoken by her dogs barking.

As she started to sit up, a fox reportedly jumped on her and bared its teeth. The terrified teenager screamed for her dad, Jim, who trapped the animal in the bedroom before chasing it out of the house with a mop.

"I was sleeping in bed and then heard noises downstairs and dogs barking so I thought it was our two dogs fighting," Isobelle told the Richmond and Twickenham Times.

"A couple of minutes later I hear another noise and thought it was my two dogs," she said, explaining how the next thing she knew 'there was a fox in my face leaning over me with its teeth out like it was going to attack me'.

"I just froze and then I started screaming and my dad ran in," the terrified teen recalled.

Isobelle was left so traumatised by the incident that her mum Helen had to camp in her room the following night until she fell asleep.

"I often see foxes walking down the alleyway but you don't expect them to jump into bed with you," shocked Helen told the paper. "The fox came up in through my dining room, up the stairs and into her bedroom. She said it was on top of her showing its teeth."

"It's like something out of Little Red Riding Hood," she added.

A pest control expert told the paper that foxes entering family homes was not a 'common' occurrence but not unheard of.

"What has happened is foxes have lost the fear of humans and they are extremely opportunistic so if they see an opening, they will go for it," said Steve Barron from Pest-go Ltd. "They are losing their natural instincts of being wary and scared of humans. People should stop feeding them because what they learn when they are young, they will carry on until their later life."